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Chelsea midfielder Ramires will miss the rest of the club's Premier League campaign after accepting a four-match ban for violent conduct on Thursday. Ramires had until 1700GMT on Thursday to respond to a Football Association charge after he struck Sunderland's Sebastian Larsson in an off-the-ball incident during his team's …

Borussia Dortmund's charismatic coach Jurgen Klopp reiterated Thursday he will not be joining Manchester United despite UK media reports linking him to the vacant manager's job following David Moyes' dismissal. "It's a bit uncomfortable to give someone a rejection when no offer has come, but it looks like that's what I …

Defending champion Maria Sharapova reached the last eight of the Stuttgart WTA tournament on Thursday with a convincing 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow-Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The 27-year-old Sharapova needed just one hour, 32 minutes to see off Pavlyuchenkova to pick up her tenth straight win in Stuttgart, having won …

Australian Richie Porte has revealed that it was his decision rather than Team Sky's to take him off their Giro d'Italia team in May. Sky announced their nine-man Giro team on Thursday, with Briton Peter Kennaugh, Dario Cataldo of Italy and Belarussian Kanstantin Siutsou leading the British team, who will be aiming for …

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari on Thursday revealed eight of his squad for the World Cup, including four skippers, while adding he has no concerns with the form of striker Neymar. Two weeks before officially unveiling his final squad, Scolari said he was appointing Thiago Silva of Paris Saint Germain, Chelsea's David …

World number 20 Nicolas Almagro overcame fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3 to move into the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open on Thursday, avenging his defeat in the Houston final. Verdasco had beaten Almagro to take the title in Houston 11 days ago, but the sixth seed took his revenge as just one break in …

Qatar may build fewer grounds than the scheduled 12 for the 2022 World Cup to reflect the "size of the country", organisers said Thursday after consulting with world governing body FIFA. "FIFA decided with the Qatar organising committee to examine a reduction in the number of stadiums that had been fixed at 12 in a manner …

FIFA on Thursday announced 12 World Cup fan fests, including the northern city of Recife, where authorities had previously said it would not go ahead on cost and security grounds. Fan fests -- huge street parties for ticketless fans -- proved successful on their launch at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and continued in …